Margaret Hodge estimates the former London mayor Boris Johnson’s “vanity projects” cost more than £939m (The ABC of Johnson’s pricey legacy, 19 August). Perhaps his personal balance-sheet should also include the cost of the cuts he imposed on London’s fire service. The £29m cuts in 2013 saw the demise of 10 fire stations, 14 fire engines and 552 firefighters. Even if it is possible to make some kind of assessment of the commercial costs of these cuts, the human costs are incalculable.
Francis Prideaux
London
• Boris Johnson apparently burned through nearly £1bn while his chums unleashed austerity. He also seems to have planted the most magical of money trees: a £225m subsidy for an estimated 13,600 bikes amounts to more than £16,500 per bike. I think we have been taken for a ride.
Dr Mark Ellis
Huddersfield
While I share other Guardian readers’ antipathy to much of Boris Johnson’s politics, • I don’t accept that everything Boris Johnson did as London mayor was wrong. His new bus design had a massively positive practical impact: when the back platform was open for people to hop on and off (and to switch between buses at will), passenger journey times in areas served by the buses could be cut by 30%. Hopping on and off cut dwell-time at bus stops, speeding up journeys even for those not availing themselves of the option. Quicker bus timings mean more people on a given route with fewer buses. Factoring in the value of time saved by passengers, it was clear that the cost of the extra wage – for conductors to oversee the open platform – was more than covered by overall savings. The real “pricey legacy” is the later shutting of the back platforms and consequent wasting of one of the bus’s special design features.
Albert Beale
London
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